THE HOLDOUT by Graham Moore
B&B RATING: 4 / 5
MOOD: If you’re looking for A courtroom drama and murder mystery combined with amateur detective bravado, this one is for you.
Synopsis
Maya Seale was one of the notorious jurors responsible for letting Bobby Nocks go free for the kidnapping and assumed murder of teenaged Jessica Silver. Now, ten years later, Maya is a successful criminal defense attorney working at a prestigious firm in downtown L.A when she gets roped into a reunion of the original 12 jurors in the Jessica Silver murder. One of them has some incredible new evidence to blow the whole case apart, though what that is is anyone’s guess.
Things take a turn when one of the jurors winds up dead, sparking a new investigation, new allegations, and a new arrest. Will the old set of jurors band together to solve the murder, or will they tear each other apart in their own framed defenses? Time to play jury, judge, and executioner…
Review
I really loved this book! There was a lot going on all at once, and it flipped between the current time in Maya’s point of view to the past, a chapter from the point of view of each member of the jury giving the whole thing an interesting perspective. The writing was a little slow at first, but once I crested the first 50 pages I had a hard time putting it down.
Maya was a likable character, and relatable. She had very little direction in her life until this jury summons put her in a unique position, tearing away her veils of normalcy and exposing her raw self underneath, the self that she had always been meant to be. As someone who has had more than their fair share of wandering through the “normal” stages of life and then wondering, “Well, what the fuck do I do now?” it was comforting to find a strong female lead that found her decisive part of herself after the storm struck. Gives broads like me some hope.
Drink Pairing:
A glass of Chandon Blanc de Noir, mixed with a little bowl of raspberries.